The North American International Auto Show, aka Detroit Auto Show, is the splashy jewel in the bankrupt, beleaguered crown that is Detroit this week. (The show, in the Cobo Center, runs until Jan. 26.) In a contrast of sorts, new cars costing $100,000 or more are being displayed in a city that last July filed for bankruptcy, with more than $18 billion in debt, the largest such filing for a city in U.S. history. Yes, I know, we’re here to talk about cars, not cash, but having spent a few days in Detroit two years ago, as it was clearly sliding toward the cellar, I have a picture imprinted on my brain of abandoned buildings in an unworkable city.

The auto show. General Motors scored big — very big — by having its new Corvette (the C7, in Corvette-speak) and its Chevy Silverado pickup named, respectively, North American Car of the Year and North American Truck of the Year. The Corvette, of course, has had plenty of ink over the past year, since this is only the seventh iteration of America’s dominant sports car in the 61 years General Motors been making them. Further, this Stingray (as opposed to Sting Ray, the name they used for the C2 generation) was almost 10 years in the making, given that its predecessor, the C6, debuted in model year 2005. The C7, by all lights, is a terrific car and, at a base price of just over $50,000, is something of a relative bargain in the world of sports cars. The Silverado is a lot less sensational and it is a truck, so it’s not nearly as sexy. But trucks sell.

In fact, the best-selling vehicle in the United States is the Ford F-150 and at the Detroit show Ford is introducing a radical new version of that truck — its body is 95 percent aluminum and it means that the truck has been lightened by a hefty 700 pounds. Anything to reduce weight in a truck will help with fuel mileage. More about all this in this Autoweek piece.

As for concept cars, the standout was Toyota’s FT-1, a big-wheeled rocket that presumably would pick up where the late, lamented Supra (1978-2002, in one form or another) left off. The FT-1 looks like it would be fun to nose up against Acura’s upcoming NSX, or even some of the German go-fasts. More on the FT-1 at this Motor Trend entry.